Designers of integrated circuits, and especially application specific integrated circuits, are confronted with increased complexity as the number of functions provided by the circuits increase. Faster speeds, greater numbers of components, increased size of the circuit, routing issues, software development, and the like, have all contributed to the increase in integrated circuit complexity. However, as this complexity has increased, there has not been a corresponding increase in methods and systems designed to embrace this complexity. Rather designers are confronted with outdated methodologies that while sufficient for previous designs, may not take into account the issues experienced with the higher complexity devices.
For example, ASIC designs are typically late in design and therefore late to market. Much of this delay is caused by difficulty in testing the design in a system environment early enough, and the need to “spin” silicon because of inadequate system tests.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system and method for rapid prototyping of an integrated circuit.